Adobe is hiring for expansive Utah building

Growth • Technology company shows off its $100 million Utah County campus.

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Lehi • Adobe Systems Inc. anticipates its new $100 million Utah headquarters will be completed before the end of the year and plans to hire for 200 high-paying positions by the time it moves into the Lehi facility.

The California-based software technology company showed off its new 280,000-square-foot Utah facility on Tuesday that is designed as an attractive and stimulating workspace inside and out and with the aim of attracting top talent for its continuing expansion here.

"By the time of move-in we'll probably be over 1,000 employees," said Brad Rencher, senior vice president and general manager of Adobe's digital marketing unit. "We have 800 right now. We anticipate lots of job openings."

Adobe bought Utah-based Omniture Inc. for $1.8 billion in 2009. Omniture's software that measures and analyzes traffic to websites is the basis for Adobe's digital marketing unit, which will operate in the new building. The company's other unit is focused on providing online publishing tools and is based in California.

Adobe purchased 38 acres of land in 2010 in northern Utah County just off Interstate 15 and below the big Cabela's outdoor recreation store where it is building the first of what eventually could turn out to be three buildings housing 3,000 employees.

"This site and the growth of this site is really being powered by digital marketing," said Rencher, who said the company is forecasting 20 percent per year revenue increases for the unit.

He said the company hopes to occupy the first building by the end of this year.

The new facility is long and thin, and positioned to take advantage of expansive views of the Wasatch Mountains and the northern Utah and southern Salt Lake valleys. It's energy efficient and 85 percent open space so employees can intermingle easily, with a planned cafe, basketball court, yoga center, climbing wall and even a bicycle entrance that accommodates the company-sponsored racing team.

Jonathan Francom, Adobe's global director of workplace programs, pointed out that work spaces do not butt up against the full ceiling-to-floor glass walls in order to emphasize the outdoor connection and allow for people to easily circulate and collaborate.

"Around the perimeter, six feet from the glass is sacred," he said. "There are no offices, no workspaces, there are no conference rooms that are sucked up against the glass."

Francom said Adobe was spending about $5 million a month to complete the building, which is being built by Okland Construction of Salt Lake City.

Aaron Hall, Okland's project manager, said the long cantilevers where the building overhangs empty space plus other rare design elements challenged the builders. He said 300 workers were onsite but that by the third quarter the number is expected to double.

Adobe has plans for two more buildings to accommodate what it hopes is the continued expansion of the digital marketing unit.

Rencher said the first building should be nearly full by the time it is occupied, and the company probably would make a decision soon on whether to start construction of another.

In 2010, the Governor's Office of Economic Development board extended a $40.2 million tax incentive to Adobe. The incentive is payable if the company completes certain hiring goals, including paying an annual average salary of about $60,000 to workers, or 75 percent more than the average Utah County wage.

The software technology company has plans for three buildings in Lehi, where its digital marketing unit is headquartered. One building is scheduled to be finished this year and a decision on further construction should be made soon after that one is occupied, company officials said. 

Adobe's new Lehi building

Size • 280,000 square feet with space for more than 1,100 employees

Concrete • More than 18,000 cubic yards

Reinforcing steel • 4.5 million pounds (2,250 tons)

Dirt • 15,000 truckloads will be moved

Glass • 420,000 square feet

Network cabling • More than 1 million feet

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